Associations between energy drink consumption and Big Five personality traits among Japanese adults

Abstract

Background

This study examined the associations between energy drink consumption and personality traits using the Big Five personality model and sensation seeking in a Japanese adult sample. Energy drink consumption has been linked to health problems and risk behaviors. The aim of this study was to identify the personality characteristics of energy drink consumers to provide insights for preventing excessive or harmful consumption.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey. Participants completed measures of the Big Five personality traits, sensation seeking, and the frequency of energy drink consumption. A total of 789 Japanese adults (397 women and 392 men; age range: 20–59 years) were analyzed.

Results

Ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed a positive association between energy drink consumption and Extraversion. This association was attenuated after adjusting for sensation-seeking facets. This pattern of association was observed even after adjusting for other beverage consumption.

Conclusions

These findings suggested that the Big Five framework can be used to identify the personality characteristics of energy drink consumers. In particular, individuals with a high need for stimulation—a facet of Extraversion—were more likely to consume energy drinks. These findings may inform public health strategies addressing the potential risks associated with energy drink consumption.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-026-26357-w.

Introduction

Energy drinks are popular beverages, particularly among young adults. Although energy drinks are often expected to enhance physical performance [1], their consumption is associated with various problems in daily life. Richards and Smith reported that energy drink use is linked to chronic mental health issues, especially stress, anxiety, and depression [2]. Moreover, energy drink consumers tend to engage in problematic behaviors such as substance use and sexual risk-taking [3, 4]. Caffeine in energy drinks also poses the risk of overdose and has been linked to mental health problems [5, 6].

One strategy for preventing substance addiction is to identify the personality traits associated with a higher risk of excessive or harmful consumption. Examining general personality traits may enable more effective targeting of interventions [7]. The Big Five personality traits represent a comprehensive framework for personality and have been shown to predict behavioral and life outcomes broadly [8–10]. The Big Five personality traits include Extraversion (e.g., sociable, cheerful, energetic), Agreeableness (e.g., kind, empathetic, trusting), Conscientiousness (e.g., careful, diligent, organized), Neuroticism (e.g., fearful, anxious, emotionally unstable), and Openness (e.g., imaginative, artistic, thoughtful). Previous studies have identified associations between the Big Five traits and alcohol use [11, 12] and smoking [7, 13], thereby offering insights into consumers’ psychological profiles and suggesting possible approaches to behavioral support.

Which personality traits are associated with energy drink consumption? Yoshino and Oshio found that Extraversion was positively related to whether Japanese university students had ever consumed energy drinks [14]. Consistent with this, previous studies have linked energy drink consumption frequency to sensation-seeking and risk-taking tendencies [3, 14, 15], which are considered key facets of Extraversion [16]. These findings suggest that consumers of energy drinks often seek stimulation. However, most of these studies have focused only on young or undergraduate populations. A previous study based on qualitative data showed that younger individuals (teenagers and people in their 20s) consumed energy drinks more frequently than older young adults (aged 29 and above), and that their perceptions of the efficacy of energy drinks differed [17]. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether the associations between energy drink consumption and personality traits generalize beyond adolescents and young adults, particularly to adults in their 30s to 50s. To ensure the generalizability of such associations, it is necessary to examine them across broader demographic groups [18].

The present study aimed to investigate the association between the frequency of energy drink consumption and the Big Five personality traits across a wide age range. We also explored whether these associations could be explained by consumption of other beverages by controlling for coffee, alcohol, and nutritional tonic drink intake. We included coffee as an indicator of general caffeine consumption. A recent study suggested that alcohol consumption is positively associated with Extraversion and negatively associated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness [12]. Nutritional tonic drinks are a Japanese-origin beverage category that typically contains taurine and B vitamins. These products were marketed in Japan earlier than energy drinks; therefore, some individuals may consume nutritional tonic drinks instead of energy drinks to boost their energy [19]. Additionally, we examined whether sensation seeking is associated with energy drink consumption and whether it accounts for the association between Extraversion and consumption frequency. Although previous findings suggest that sensation seeking is positively related to the frequency of energy drink use, Extraversion has only been linked to lifetime experience, not frequency, among Japanese university students [14]. We hypothesized that individuals with high Extraversion would consume energy drinks more frequently, thus testing this association more comprehensively.

Materials & methods

Participants and procedure

We conducted an online survey using a platform provided by iBridge Inc. in October 2020. The participants were recruited from the iBridge Survey Panel. The sample comprised 800 Japanese adults stratified by binary sex categorization (women and men) and generation (20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s) to ensure equal representation. This sample size was selected to ensure a sufficient number of habitual energy drink consumers. We excluded 11 participants who selected the same response for all psychological scales, including reverse-scored items in the TIPI-J. A total of 789 participants (397 women and 392 men; M_age = 40.26, SD_age = 11.09, range: 20–59) were included in the analysis. An ad hoc power analysis (N = 789, α = 0.05, and r = .10, representing a small association; [20]) indicated 80.36% power.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee on Research with Human Subjects of Waseda University (Application No. 2020-018). All participants provided informed consent prior to participation, in accordance with the Ethical Principles of the Japanese Psychological Association.

Measures

The frequency of consuming energy drinks was assessed with one item: “How often do you drink the following?” One of the following was an “energy drink (e.g., Red Bull and Monster Energy).” Responses were measured on a seven-category ordered scale (none, once a year, a few times a year, once a month, once a week, a few times a week, and almost every day), as in Yoshino and Oshio’s research [14]. We measured coffee, alcohol, and nutritional tonic drink consumption using the same scale.

The Big Five personality traits were assessed using the Japanese version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI-J; [21]), translated from the original TIPI [22]. Items were rated on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). After reverse-scoring one of the items, the internal correlations for Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness were 0.39, 0.23, 0.45, 0.37, and 0.28, respectively, consistent with the previous finding [21].

At the same time, we included an additional Big Five measure in the survey to assess the robustness of the findings. This measure was a 29-item short form consisting of trait adjectives in Japanese (Extraversion: 5 items; Agreeableness: 6 items; Conscientiousness: 7 items; Neuroticism: 5 items; and Openness: 6 items) [23]. We used this measure as an alternative operationalization of the Big Five to confirm that the results were robust across measures. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness were 0.88, 0.80, 0.85, 0.90, and 0.87, respectively.

Sensation-seeking was assessed using the Sensation Seeking Scale-Abstract Expression (SSS-AE; [24]). SSS-AE comprises 15 sentences and three subscales: Thrill and Adventure Seeking (e.g., “I like thrilled sports even if it has a little risk”), Disinhibition (e.g., “I enjoy changing the hobby on the trend”), and Experience Seeking (e.g., “I would like to have various experiences as possible”). Each subscale comprised five items measuring the traits referred to by Zuckerman et al. [25]. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Disinhibition, and Experience Seeking were 0.88, 0.81, and 0.87, respectively.

We used the mean scores for each Big Five domain and each SSS-AE subscale.

Statistical analysis

Energy drink consumption was as follows: none (63.5%), once a year (7.22%), a few times a year (8.62%), once a month (10.14%), once a week (5.83%), a few times a week (3.68%), and almost every day (1.01%). Given this ordered categorical scale, we conducted ordinal logistic regression analyses to examine the associations between the predictor variables and energy drink consumption after examining the correlations among the variables used in the analysis. The first model included the Big Five traits, along with demographic variables: age, sex (1 = man), education (1 = at least a bachelor’s degree), marital status (1 = married), parenthood status (1 = having any children), and low income (1 = under 2,000,000 yen). To examine the association between personality traits and energy drink consumption independent of other beverages, we additionally adjusted for the frequency of coffee, alcohol, and nutritional tonic drink consumption as covariates. Because these variables were assessed on an ordered frequency scale, we operationalized each as a binary indicator of frequent use for inclusion as covariates. Responses of “a few times a week” or “almost every day” were coded as 1, and 0 otherwise, and entered as dummy variables. We then added each sensation-seeking subscale to the model separately and observed changes in the regression coefficient for Extraversion.

Results

Age group differences in energy drink consumption

We confirmed the cross-tabulation of age group and the frequency of energy drink consumption prior to the main analyses. A chi-square test revealed a significant association between age group and energy drink consumption frequency (χ² = 41.95, p < .01). Table S1 and Figure S1 in the Supplementary Material show that individuals in their 40s and 50s were more likely to have never consumed energy drinks compared to those in their 20–30s. Although this association was present, the proportion of individuals consuming energy drinks at least once a month in their 20s was similar to that in their 40s and 50s. The highest proportion of such consumption was observed among individuals in their 30s.

Association between personality traits and energy drink consumption

Correlations among the variables and descriptive statistics are provided in the Supplementary Material (Table S2). Spearman’s rank correlations were used for associations involving the ordered consumption-frequency variables (energy drinks, coffee, alcohol, and nutritional tonic drinks). Energy drink consumption was positively associated with Extraversion (r_s = 0.14, p < .001) and Openness (r_s = 0.17, p < .001). All three subscales of the SSS-AE were also positively associated with energy drink consumption: Thrill and Adventure Seeking (r_s = 0.30, p < .001), Disinhibition (r_s = 0.24, p < .001), and Experience Seeking (r_s = 0.22, p < .001). In addition, younger individuals and males tended to consume energy drinks more frequently (age: r_s = − 0.12, p < .01; sex: r_s = 0.23, p < .001). Energy drink consumption was significantly correlated with alcohol consumption (r_s = 0.26, p < .001) and nutritional tonic drink consumption (r_s = 0.63, p < .001).

We conducted ordinal logistic regression analyses after standardizing the explanatory variables. Table 1 presents the cumulative odds ratios for each model. Extraversion was positively associated with energy drink consumption (OR = 1.24, p < .05). When the frequencies of other beverages were included in the model, the association remained statistically significant (OR = 1.23, p < .05). Although Openness was associated with energy drink consumption (OR = 1.22, p < .05), the association was no longer significant after adjusting for the frequencies of other beverages (OR = 1.13, p = .16). This suggests that the association between Extraversion and energy drink consumption was not fully explained by the consumption of other beverages.

Table 1.

Results of ordinal logistic regression analysis predicting energy drink consumption from Big Five personality traits

	OR	95% CI	p values	OR	95% CI	p values
Extraversion	1.24	[1.05, 1.47]	< 0.05	1.23	[1.03, 1.46]	< 0.05
Agreeableness	0.98	[0.83, 1.16]	0.84	0.97	[0.82, 1.14]	0.70
Conscientiousness	1.06	[0.88, 1.26]	0.55	1.02	[0.85, 1.22]	0.83
Neuroticism	1.08	[0.91, 1.28]	0.40	1.05	[0.88, 1.25]	0.59
Openness	1.22	[1.03, 1.45]	< 0.05	1.13	[0.95, 1.35]	0.16
Age	0.75	[0.64, 0.88]	< 0.001	0.67	[0.56, 0.79]	< 0.001
Sex	1.69	[1.45, 1.99]	< 0.001	1.67	[1.42, 1.96]	< 0.001
Education	0.99	[0.85, 1.15]	0.87	0.95	[0.81, 1.10]	0.49
Marital status	1.00	[0.80, 1.23]	0.97	1.00	[0.81, 1.25]	0.97
Parenthood status	1.09	[0.88, 1.34]	0.44	1.06	[0.86, 1.31]	0.59
Low income	1.09	[0.94, 1.27]	0.24	1.13	[0.96, 1.31]	0.14
Coffee consumption				1.11	[0.95, 1.31]	0.20
Alcohol consumption				1.40	[1.20, 1.63]	< 0.001
Nutritional tonic drink consumption				1.88	[1.63, 2.17]	< 0.001
pseudo R2	0.04			0.09

OR Odds Ratio, CI Confidence Interval

Note. Sex (1 = man), education (1 = at least a bachelor’s degree), marital status (1 = married), parenthood status (1 = having any children), low income (1 = under 2,000,000 yen) and other beverage consumption (1 = a few times a week or more) were coded as dummy variables

Table 2 presents the results of the additional models, including the SSS-AE subscales as explanatory variables. When each SSS-AE subscale was added to the model, Thrill and Adventure Seeking (OR = 1.59, p < .001), Disinhibition (OR = 1.36, p < .001), and Experience Seeking (OR = 1.43, p < .001) were positively associated with energy drink consumption. The association between Extraversion and energy drink consumption became non-significant for each model. Thrill and Adventure Seeking showed the strongest association with energy drink consumption in both the Spearman correlations and the ordinal logistic regression models.

Table 2.

Results of ordinal logistic regression analyses predicting energy drink consumption from Big Five personality traits and SSS-AE

	OR	95% CI	p values	OR	95% CI	p values	OR	95% CI	p values
Extraversion	1.12	[0.94, 1.35]	0.21	1.15	[0.96, 1.38]	0.12	1.17	[0.98, 1.39]	0.09
Agreeableness	0.99	[0.83, 1.17]	0.89	0.97	[0.82, 1.15]	0.76	0.95	[0.80, 1.12]	0.52
Conscientiousness	1.05	[0.87, 1.26]	0.62	1.03	[0.86, 1.24]	0.72	1.08	[0.90, 1.29]	0.43
Neuroticism	1.18	[0.98, 1.42]	0.08	1.09	[0.91, 1.31]	0.32	1.11	[0.93, 1.33]	0.26
Openness	1.04	[0.87, 1.25]	0.67	1.08	[0.90, 1.29]	0.42	0.99	[0.82, 1.19]	0.88
Thrill & Adventure Seeking	1.59	[1.33, 1.90]	< 0.001
Disinhibition				1.36	[1.15, 1.61]	< 0.001
Experience Seeking							1.43	[1.20, 1.71]	< 0.001
Age	0.72	[0.60, 0.85]	< 0.001	0.70	[0.59, 0.84]	< 0.001	0.69	[0.58, 0.81]	< 0.001
Sex	1.55	[1.31, 1.83]	< 0.001	1.64	[1.39, 1.94]	< 0.001	1.69	[1.43, 2.00]	< 0.001
Education	0.97	[0.83, 1.13]	0.68	0.96	[0.83, 1.12]	0.65	0.95	[0.81, 1.11]	0.50
Marital status	0.98	[0.78, 1.21]	0.83	0.97	[0.78, 1.20]	0.77	1.01	[0.81, 1.25]	0.94
Parenthood status	1.01	[0.82, 1.26]	0.90	1.05	[0.85, 1.31]	0.62	1.05	[0.85, 1.30]	0.66
Low income	1.12	[0.96, 1.31]	0.15	1.14	[0.97, 1.33]	0.10	1.13	[0.97, 1.32]	0.12
Coffee consumption	1.13	[0.96, 1.33]	0.14	1.13	[0.96, 1.33]	0.14	1.11	[0.94, 1.31]	0.21
Alcohol consumption	1.38	[1.18, 1.62]	< 0.001	1.36	[1.17, 1.59]	< 0.001	1.39	[1.19, 1.62]	< 0.001
Nutritional tonic drink consumption	1.77	[1.53, 2.04]	< 0.001	1.82	[1.58, 2.10]	< 0.001	1.86	[1.61, 2.15]	< 0.001
pseudo R2	0.11			0.10			0.10

OR Odds Ratio, CI Confidence Interval

Note. Sex (1 = man), education (1 = at least a bachelor’s degree), marital status (1 = married), parenthood status (1 = having any children), low income (1 = under 2,000,000 yen), and other beverage consumption (1 = a few times a week or more) were coded as dummy variables

Robustness check

As a robustness check, we reran the same models using a trait-adjective version of the Big Five measure [23]. The results are presented in Table S3 in the Supplementary Material. The pattern of results was largely consistent across measures: energy drink consumption was associated with Extraversion both before and after adjusting for the frequencies of other beverages.

Discussion

This study found a positive association between Extraversion and energy drink consumption. This association was attenuated after adjusting for sensation-seeking subscales, suggesting that sensation seeking may partly account for the association. These findings are based on data collected from Japanese adults aged 20–59 years. Regular energy drink consumption was not limited to individuals in their 20s but was also observed among those in their 30s (and older age groups). Overall, the associations were observed in a sample spanning a broad adult age range.

The current findings contribute to research on predicting life outcomes using the Big Five traits [8–10]. While previous studies have shown that traits involving the need for stimulation are associated with energy drink consumption [3, 14, 15], few studies have examined this association using the Big Five personality framework. This approach enables comparisons between different beverages from the perspective of the Big Five personality traits and supports a broader discussion. A previous meta-analysis found that alcohol use, including alcohol-related problems, is positively associated with Neuroticism and negatively associated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness [11]. A more recent meta-analytic study reported that alcohol consumption is also positively associated with Extraversion, particularly the excitement-seeking facet [12]. These patterns suggest that energy drink consumers may share some personality characteristics with alcohol consumers. Nevertheless, energy drinks are typically not consumed at social events or parties in the same way as alcohol. The present results showed that the associations between energy drink consumption and Extraversion remained even after adjusting for alcohol consumption. Energy drinks are often consumed with the expectation of enhancing physical performance and cognitive concentration [26]. Individuals with high Extraversion may be more likely to choose energy drinks in situations that demand sustained performance (e.g., work or study). Future studies should examine energy drink consumption with consideration of both motivations for use and situational context.

The effect sizes for personality traits were not large in the present study, which may suggest that personality traits alone do not explain energy drink consumption sufficiently. However, variance in a given behavior is explained by several variables, including situational (e.g., busy schedules) and environmental (e.g., temperature) variables, and the proportion of variance explained by personality traits is generally modest when predicting behaviors and life outcomes [20, 27]. Even small effects had important implications when the outcome affects a large number of people [20, 27]. The review of personality research reported that correlations of approximately 0.10 and 0.30 correspond to the 25th and 75th percentiles of effect sizes in meta-analytic studies in personality, respectively [28]. From this perspective, correlations around 0.10 can be considered meaningful [20]. The (Spearman’s rank) correlation coefficients of energy drink consumption with Extraversion (r_s = 0.14) and with Thrill & Adventure Seeking (r_s = 0.30) fall within this typical range.

This study was conducted in Japan, and the findings are broadly consistent with those reported in Western countries. However, frequent energy drink consumption appears to be relatively uncommon in Japan. The prevalence of ever consuming energy drinks among adults (36.5%) and university students (47.6%) in Japan [14]was low compared to other countries (e.g., Australia: 51.2% [29]; Sweden: 63.3% [30]). One possible reason is that energy drinks may be substituted with nutritional tonic drinks in Japan. The Spearman’s rank correlation between energy drink and nutritional tonic drink consumption was strong (r_s = 0.63), and Extraversion was also correlated with nutritional tonic drink consumption (r_s = 0.14); however, the association between Extraversion and energy drink consumption remained after adjusting for nutritional tonic drink consumption. This pattern suggests that energy drink consumption may reflect stimulation seeking that is not solely attributable to ingredients but may also involve the experience and context of consuming energy drinks.

Conclusions

Although health risks associated with energy drink consumption have primarily been observed among young adults, our findings suggest that energy drinks are consumed by individuals across generations. Given that energy drinks have been on the market for approximately 40 years, long-term health problems may emerge. Thus, accumulating findings from personality psychology studies may be necessary for anticipating and addressing such risks.

This study had some limitations that highlight directions for future research. First, we assessed energy drink use using a single self-report item on consumption frequency, and we did not capture other aspects of use (e.g., specific products, energy drink problems, or consumption contexts). Because the measure relied on retrospective reporting, responses may have been affected by recall error. Future studies should use more detailed and objective assessments to improve measurement accuracy. Second, because the survey was cross-sectional, we could not determine the temporal ordering of personality traits and energy drink consumption. Longitudinal research is needed to examine whether Extraversion and sensation seeking predict subsequent changes in energy drink consumption (e.g., from the beginning to the final year of university). Third, the present associations were small, and we conducted multiple statistical tests across traits and models. Some statistically significant findings may reflect chance variation; therefore, the results should be interpreted with caution. Replication studies with independent samples are needed to evaluate the robustness and practical significance of the findings. Fourth, this study may have cultural specificity. Future studies should examine whether similar patterns of association using the Big Five personality framework emerge in different cultural contexts.

Abbreviations

TIPI-J

Japanese version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory

SSS-AE

Sensation Seeking Scale-Abstract Expression

Authors’ contributions

SY: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing-original draft; AO: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing-review & editing.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant [grant number: 2020-06] from Tobacco Academic Studies Center.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee on Research with Human Subjects of Waseda University (Application No. 2020-018). This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Before the survey, participants were presented with an information page stating that participation posed no health risks, that participation was voluntary, and that they could discontinue the survey at any time. All participants provided informed consent prior to participation.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.